Would you protect someone you love, even if it meant they might never want to see you again?

That was the risk Becca Lewis had to take for her best friend, Derek Stokes. To anyone outside looking in, he was just a handsome troublemaker. She had thought the same until the day she first met him bruised and bleeding on the side of the road, and their worlds collided. A year later and closer than ever, she promised to keep his painful secret safe. But she couldn't anymore. Watching him suffer in silence became unbearable and she had to betray his trust in an effort to save him.

Becca was the only one Derek Stokes let see the reality of his abusive home, and he trusted his enchanting, kind-hearted friend enough to believe she would keep it hidden. Now, he wants nothing to do with her. She was just a girl who stabbed him in the back and messed everything up. She means nothing to him-at least, that's what he's trying to tell himself.

Content Warnings: mentions and depictions of child abuse, violence, sexual situations (non-explicit), alcohol abuse, strong language